Bridge: Player of Year contest past half-way point

By Steve Becker

Published 7:18 pm, Friday, July 17, 2015

The YWCA duplicate’s annual “Player of the Year” contest passed the halfway mark recently with last year’s champion, Terry Lubman, holding an early lead over a field of 48 players who had participated in at least 10 games since the first of the year.

The leader’s average percentage score stood at 58.0 percent for 11 games, giving her slightly more than a percentage point lead over runner-up Sharon Santow, whose average was 56.9 percent for 14 appearances.

Jerry Jacobs was third with 56.7 for 16 games, followed by Susan Vock, 56.5 for 11, and Donna Malitzis, 56.3 for 18.

Rounding out the top 10 in the contest, for which anyone who plays in at least 15 games during the year automatically becomes eligible, were:

Today’s quiz: Here is another in the current series of quizzes on passed-hand bidding.

In the following problem, assume your partner passed as dealer, and you, in third seat, have opened the bidding with one heart. With the opponents passing throughout, what (if anything) would you bid if your partner answered your one heart opening by jumping to: a) three hearts; b) two notrump; or c) two spades? Your hand:

S KQ84 H AK952 D A5 C K6

Answers:

a) Four notrump. After partner’s jump in hearts (indicating 11 or 12 points), this hand, counting high cards and distribution, is worth more than 20 points, putting you in the slam range.

If, in answer to your Blackwood inquiry, partner shows one or two aces, you should bid six hearts, stopping in five hearts only in the unlikely event that partner has no aces.

b) Three notrump. With two relatively balanced hands opposite each other, 33 points are usually required to make a small slam in notrump.

Since you and your partner cannot have more than 31 points in the combined hands in this instance, you should not try for slam and simply settle for game in notrump.

c) Four notrump. Precisely the same as in a) above, except this time the potential slam is in spades.